A Fleeting Flame and a Blithe Blaze
by Kitsune-Dama
Summary: The Head Captain had failed; Ywach invaded Soul Society and managed to slay him. In his last moments, the founder of the Gotei 13 reminisced on his past life- more specifically, his life before he died. No one would have thought that he and Natsu Dragneel would be one and the same, and he didn't think he'd ever wake up back in Magnolia after he should have been dead and gone.


**I have a problem, and it is making too many stories when I already have so many more to finish up.**

 **I just can't stop myself from making a story whenever I get an idea, but to be honest, this one I am fairly proud of, as I am almost positive the idea has never been done before(Well, this specific idea, I mean, as I know for a fact stories where characters reincarnate as different Hollow's and Shinigami exist, but this specific combination has never been done, to my prior knowledge!), and it came to me suddenly when I was looking for new Fanficiton to read(Because at this point, I've already read basically all the good ones form categories I visit, so unless I get into some new Anime or cartoons or video games, I'm at an impasse.), and I was looking at Fairy Tail archives, and I just thought to myself 'Wait, I am hungry.'.**

 **That has literally nothing to do with how I came up with the idea, but after I went to eat, I remembered Natsu and fire, and then I remembered Toshiro(For some reason- I don't know, I think I was looking up porn or something and I saw his name pop up somewhere.), and then I remembered how badly Yamamoto's sword fucks him up, and then it hit me.**

 **So that was how this new, and totally unneeded story came to pass.**

 **Enjoy it while you can, before I lose interest in writing it from all the people who are going to contact me and complain about how I am making even MORE characters OOC and somehow unrealistic, even though this is fucking** ** _fanfiction_** **, where literally anything can happen, and whine and moan that I am ruining their favorite characters just because I couldn't come to a decision on whether or not to make Natsu or Yamamoto the dominant personality, so I just mixed the both together, and now somehow it ruins the entire story, or from people that are going to undermine my reasons for making either character personalities as they are and point out 'Obvious' flaws in the plot that I didn't 'Think' of in the very first chapter that I totally wouldn't have written off later on when the story actually progressed past chapter ONE.**

 **... Okay, I just used that as an excuse to rant about something that's been bothering me lately, but please ignore the crazy lady who is trying to cross the street with an invisible dog!**

 **Besides the obviously not needed but I'm still adding it anyway because if I don't I will bottle it up while it slowly kills me on the inside, read and enjoy the story!**

 **And most importantly; Hail Senpai.**

He was a disgrace.

Once upon a time, he had been the strongest existence. Known throughout the land of the dead as the oldest, wisest, and most powerful Shinigami, the founder of the Gotei 13, and the leader of Seireitei for over 1000 years. Even his Zanpakutō, Ryūjin Jakka, was hailed as the best sword, with flames that could eviscerate his enemies into ash before they could blink and unparalleled offensive capabilities.

 _And he let it go to his head._

He knew Ywach was alive- he was the one who failed to kill him 1000 years ago and forced him into hiding, after all. Yet he allowed himself to wane; peace had made him complacent, and infamy had made him arrogant. He knew not which it was that made him believe the Quincy would no longer be a threat to the very organization he had founded all those years ago, and subsequently had him not make any moves to assure that they would be thoroughly prepared in case such a case arose, but it had happened.

Mayhaps he believed the massacre a couple hundred years ago finally mitigated the threat of the Quincy and made their leader think twice before he messed with Yamamoto and the various Captains that he has come to call his children over his long reign, or maybe it was a small part of him that didn't want to have to deal with it himself, so he constantly pushed the thoughts back until the day he could hopefully find a rightful successor and retire while throwing this onto them in this old mans stead.

Regardless, the threat was now at his front door step, and they caught Yamamoto with his pants down around his ankles while he was rubbing one off in the bathroom.

Most would be shocked to hear the Soutaicho speak so vulgurly, but then again, most didn't know the old man remembered his past life and just how… For a lack of a better term, _stupid_ he was in that life, as well.

Then again, with him bifurcated on the ground, inside a crater right after being blindsided by the REAL Ywach, and not one of his Sternritter who the man had foolishly believed was the real one, with the other Quincies going around the different barracks and streets, destroying property and people alike while the Shinigami attempted to make a last minute defense plan, maybe these last 2000 and some years hadn't changed that fact as much as he would have thought.

He remembered those times, when he was just a naive little brat who constantly looked for fights, not having any ambitions of his own other than to find his adoptive father who he thought abandoned him, and to get stronger to fight more and more powerful opponents. Recollecting those fleeting moments(A few decades to a man as old as he was like the lifespan of your average house fly in his eyes.) when he would start bar fights, declare himself as the best of the best, and sneak into other people's houses(More to the point, a certain voluptuous blondes house.) had him cringing at the lack of tact and brains in all his actions.

He never _was_ ever able to fully get that hot headed attitude of his under control, as even now, as mellowed out as he was in old age, he had his fits of anger and brash action.

One might include going to face the same man he had failed to kill in his prime with one less arm in that category, actually.

Still, he had a good run, and he knew that one way or another, the Shinigami would win the day(Even if they _did_ have to rely on outcasts, former enemies, and that human ryoka boy to do it, loath as he was to admit it.), and the Quincy would fall once again, and then, peace could reign once and for all, and everything could go back to normal.

Only this time, it would be with someone _else_ leading the pact, while this old fart reminisced in his last moments, as well as cursing the fact that he did nothing but hinder Seireitei as the progenitor of the Quincy ran around with the strongest Zanpakutō in existence at his beck and call.

Him dying wasn't so bad, though. The Soutaicho position needed some fresh new upstart to lead this land into its glory days anyway, and what good had this old man done for the place other than founding the Gotei 13?

All those years ago, when he had awoken once more, knowing that he should have been dead after failing to slay Acnologia, not for the first time, along with the rest of his friends and guildmates when Acnologia went on a rampage that destroyed all of Earth Land was heartbreaking. He had no idea what had happened, not knowing why he was still alive(Not even knowing that he was an undead Spirit at the time.), or where anyone else was as he had regained consciousness in a forest, of all things.

He had spent countless days after searching for anyone or anything that could give him any clues as to where he was, and he had no such luck up until he came upon a small cabin in the middle of a clearing. The owner(If he could recall, correctly.) was a sweet old lady who had taken him in and told him all about where he was, what he was, and that he was, in fact, _dead_.

The news didn't strike him as much as it probably should have, but then again, he already knew he had died before. Getting confirmation of it wasn't really making it any different to him. And so, he had eventually gone out into the world once more, ready to spend the rest of his undead life trying to find his friends and those he would easily call his family, not knowing just how disappointed he was to become later on when that quest inevitably _failed_.

He didn't know when he had quit in his search, only remembering it was after many a year and with a heavy heart. His years on that hunt had changed him, as well. No longer being afforded the option of going around as a knuckleheaded idiot, he had to mature as the threat of thugs, rogue 'Shinigami', and the soulless beasts known as the Hollow loomed over his head, and all of it he had to contend against without the use of his magic, as it seemed it had disappeared as soon as he lost his real body and left Earth Land behind(It was replaced by Reiryoku and Reiatsu in the end, however, that he was able to mold and use from years of self-discipline, practice, and experience.).

It had gotten to the point where his own soul(His Zanpakutō.) had to manifest itself, lest he be killed by a horde of Hollow's he had foolishly gone up against to save the lives of some unnamed souls he never got the name of, nor saw again after that point, and _without_ an Asauchi, making him the first(And quite possibly the last, if the Kurosaki boy actually gets his Zanpakutō fixed by Oetsu.) to have ever wielded a Zanpakutō without the use of an Asauchi(Not that he has ever told Oetsu that- damn guy would have been on him like Gray to stripping if he had found that little tidbit out.).

And it was fairly appropriate that his sword was not only the strongest, but the best fire-type Zanpakutō to have ever existed(Arrogant of him to say? Like he said- some quirks are just too hard to kick.), befitting for the ex-Fire Dragon Slayer and son of the Fire Dragon King, Igneel, now wasn't it?

If he was being honest, though, him founding the Gotei 13 was more than likely a subconscious urge to recreate at least one thing from his past life that he dearly missed and to try make his guildmates, wherever they were, proud. Plus it had the added benefit of gathering the various Shinigami across the lands to team up to stop the threat the Hollow's posed to them all(And, to a lesser extent, deal with the Quincy, but that never really panned out like he had anticipated when he failed to kill Ywach the first time…).

But that was all in the past, now he was just the first(But hopefully not last-) Soutaicho who had failed in his job to protect the people bleeding out on the ground, slowly dying as the empire he had built crumbled around him.

No, he thought, it was better that the name 'Genryūsai' Shigekuni Yamamoto faded into obscurity, much like the name Natsu Dragneel had come and gone after he died to Acnologia and forewent the name when he failed to find his nakama so many millennia ago…

And it was with these thoughts, that the man who many acclaimed to be the best Shinigami to have ever been made, passed away for the first time, and the boy named Natsu Dragneel died for the second.

* * *

"NATSU!" He woke up with a start in some forest, laying on the trunk of a tree. "NATSU, THE OTHER'S ARE GONNA LEAVE WITHOUT US, COME ON!" A small blue cat with angel wings and a green cape flew around his head, trying to get his attention. "Wha… _Happy_?!" "Come on! Everyone's already on their way to Oaktown to show those Phantom punks what for, and if we don't want to miss out on it, we gotta HURRY!" Still in disbelief, the now young man reached up to his face, feeling the noticeable lack of scars or facial hair, and he went higher and pulled a pink lock of hair down to see it with his own eyes.

"I'm… Natsu?" "Okay, seriously. I know you aren't the brightest fish in the ocean, but this is ridiculous even for _you_. Did you hit your head when you went to go take a nap before the Guild went off to take on Phantom Lord?" The flying mammal stopped his rounds and placed both his paws on either side of his head, a panicked expression on his head. "Did you get amnesia and forget you were Natsu, and instead think you're some decrepit old man?! It would explain the cane, as well- OH NO! NATSU HAS AMNESIA!" As the little guy soared through the air, screaming his lungs off, Natsu was coming to terms with what was going on.

Was he… _Dreaming_? Did the fight with Ywach not happen, and it was all some sort of terrible nightmare trapped within a dream of his past life(It had, admittedly, happened before, albeit not in many years now.)? Or, more unrealistically, was all of his _Shinigami_ life a dream, that was all just some kind of fever dream he only just woke up from?

No, he had _definitely_ died in both lives, of that he was certain, and he doubted either were just figments of his imagination. Could it… Have been an illusion crafted by Aizen? No, that couldn't be either. It was easy to say that Aizen would have known about Ywach, but knowing about his _past life_ , when he had told no one of it, not even his students? That was far fetched. Perhaps it was that bastard Zeref, and one of his tricks, to show him all of that as some kind of precognition- okay, now he was just scraping the bottom of the barrel for answers.

How he was here, he didn't know. Why he was here, he also had no answer to.

What was he going to _do_?

Now, neither Natsu nor Yamamoto were optimists. They were pragmatic to the end; not believing something until they had genuine, bonafide proof that it existed or was the truth. So the thought of second chances wasn't really high on their list of things they believed in(The top of that list was finding Igneel for Natsu, and dealing corporal punishment to bad subordinates… Man had he become a stick in the mud over the last few hundred years.), but Yamamoto would be the first to say that in his dreams regarding old memories, he always played them out, if for nothing but nostalgia's sake.

So, even if this _was_ some sort of dream, he would make the most of it like he had countless times in the past.

Though, if the cane leaning against the same wooden architecture he leaned on was anything to go by, this playback would have a _bit_ of a different take. Reaching out for it with an arm that was certainly not on him ten minutes ago, he hesitantly touched the wooden object, and he was both surprised and relieved to find that the same thrum of power he was always feeling from his life long partner was still around, meaning the cane was sentient and still housed a major part of himself in the confines of the disguised blade.

Taking the handle a lot more confidently than before, he gripped it tight and just took a few seconds to revel in the presence it gave off that he had found countless hours of comfort in when he became home sick over the millennia he was dead. Speaking of dead, though, now that he was back in Earth Land, did that mean he lost his Reiryoku for magic once more, or was he still magic deficient? Tapping into the innate power he held within himself, he was pleasantly surprised to find that his magical container was once more situated inside himself like the organ it was.

However, when he dug deeper, his brows furrowed themselves as he came upon a similar container, hidden in the depths of his body, that he could feel was slowly absorbing the etherno in his first container, and was steadily _converting_ it to become the source of energy that was his primary weapon back when he was a Shinigami and fill the almost completely empty container to the brim.

That, in turn, was causing his magical container to absorb the etherno on the outside to counter the draining that was happening to it from the inside, which was not a good thing, if he could remember correctly, as someone's container was only supposed to absorb the surrounding energies if they were completely empty, which his _wasn't_. This might not have been a problem, had the absorption rates evened themselves out. As it was, however, his second container was only slowly taking from his first container, but his first container seemed to only have one speed of collection: _Fast as shit_.

So now he was taking more etherno than his container could handle, and the access magic was putting a lot of pressure on his container, to the point where it was starting force itself to grow to avoid it completely shattering from the build up.

That… _Probably_ wasn't good. But what did he care? For him, this could all end up to be some kind of illusion, and all of this would just end up being useless anyway, so he wouldn't bother with it(Or at least, not yet.).

"I don't have amnesia, Happy." He used the golorified walking stick(He winced as a sudden bout of pain erupted in his head at the insult.) to stand back up, and dusted off his outfit with his free hand. "Just a bit drowsy after having only just woke from the land of slumber." At that, the little blue magic cat stared at him suspiciously. "Are you _sure_ you're really Natsu? The Natsu I know doesn't know what half those words mean, let alone how to _use_ them."

The only person with opposable thumbs in the vicinity couldn't help but sweatdrop.

"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Instead of what he was hoping for, the cat nodded. "Aye! Everyone in the Guild knows it, too!" Natsu sighed. He had, admittedly, forgotten how lacking he was in brain power back when he was alive.

It was a miracle he hadn't been killed earlier, to be honest…

"Wait, did you say that the others were already on their way to Phantom Lord's Guild to get revenge?" "Aye! They left a while ago, and if we don't hurry, we'll miss out on the beat down!" On the outside, Natsu was nonchalant, but on the inside, he was cursing, as he doubted at this point he would be able to catch up and prevent the Guild Master from being caught off guard by Aria of the Wind(Well, he could attempt to use Shunpo, but with his Reiryoku nearly depleted, he'd have to rely on his magic, and who knew how THAT would turn out for him.), so the most he could do at this point would be to go to Phantom's main headquarters and re-capture Lucy from their filthy paws, only he didn't quite remember where that was, so he was stumpt at the moment.

…

...

… He was kind of pissed it took him this long to figure out he could just prevent the capture in the first place.

Palming his face mightily, the now young man started his stride towards Magnolia, with his blue furred companion yelling at him all the way that he was going in the wrong direction.

* * *

"Juvia's Wōtā Rokku cannot be broken." The water mage waved her hand, entrapping the celestial using female back in a prison of water to slowly suffocate.

To completely contradict that statement, however, a cane flew out of nowhere and stuck itself into the orb of liquid, and within a few seconds, the entire sphere had evaporated into steam, allowing the blonde haired female to fall to the ground and gasp for breath. "Impossible…!" The blue haired woman's eyes widened while Natsu walked out from a nearby alley to pick up his weapon once more.

"MMMMM?! Another Fairy whose wings shall be plucked! This one with the name of Salamander!" "N-Natsu?!" Lucy coughed out, holding her neck and spitting out water as she glanced up at him. "I thought you went with the others…?" He shrugged. "Meh, I'm sure they can handle themselves. Besides, someone's got to man the fort back here while they're out." Giving his attention back to the half of the Elemental 4 that were here, he glared at the water woman fiercely.

"I don't take kindly to those who mess with my friends, lady." He glared into her eyes for what seemed like hours before she suddenly turned away, confusing him. "O-Of course. I shall retreat for now." That…

Was easy?

"Non! Non non non, with three nons!" The other, more _sane_ member(Though that wasn't really saying much…) tilted his head from side to side to emphasize each word from another language. "We cannot give up just yet, Juvia-Sama! This is our intended target, and it is two against one!" The woman seemed to realize that, and turned around because of it(At least to _Natsu_ , it was why.) and suddenly struck her hand out, imprisoning the Dragon Slayer in the same water prison Lucy was just stuck in moments earlier.

"Natsu!" Screaming out in concern for her friend, Lucy frantically felt around on the ground for her keys so that she could try to help, but between the rain that was steadily getting heavier and the steam from the pink haired teens last action made that a difficult act. "Juvia is sorry, but you are Juvia's enemy, and for that, you must be stopped." For some reason, she seemed flustered as she directed this at Natsu, but he just ignored that as he stood calmly inside the sphere of water, gathering up the energy needed for his next attack in the meanwhile.

Having collected a sufficient amount of magic, Natsu lit his hands a blaze, shocking those present that he was able to create fire inside of _water_ , of all things, and brought them together as steam perpetually erupted outside of the orb from the heat he was producing. "Karyū no Yuwakashi!" Suddenly, his entire body was engulfed in flames as the remaining water of the sphere completely disappeared, not even leaving steam in the aftermath as everyone around shielded their eyes and shied away from the blaze that he was outputting.

All except Juvia, that is, whose face flushed redder as she took a step _towards_ the flaming boy while her eyes glittered in admiration.

"Well now." Natsu cracked his neck as his fire receded back into himself, but his temperature stayed constant as the rain evaporated upon touching his skin. "Been a while since I was able to do _that_ without roasting myself alive. However, this is where play time ends, I'm afraid." With that, Natsu ignited the ground under him as controlled flames burst from the soles of his feet. "Karyū no Kagizume!" He then shot forward at speeds no one could catch as one second he was a few dozen feet away from either Elemental 4 member, and the next, he had shot his knee into the water woman.

It was ineffectual, however, as his knee shot straight through the side of the blue haired mage, making him blink in surprise at this new circumstance as water splashed everywhere from the blow he had just dealt upon her.

Then again, he never really paid much attention to Gray's fan girl the first time around enough to know much more outside of her primary element being water, so this could be normal for all he knew.

She even confirmed it, as she blushed and held a hand not holding her umbrella to her cheek and explained to him after seeing his confused state. "Juvia is a water woman… She is made from the rain itself, drip, drip, drop." Not going to lie, he had totally forgot about that little detail. "Wōtā Suraisā!" In his momentary lapse in judgement, the girl seemed to find the strength to continue on the offensive and slashed at him with her hand, sending razor sharp arcs of water at him. "Tch." Not too nonplussed at the attack, the pink haired male raised his disguised Zanpakutō to block two of the blasts, as the third zoomed straight passed him to cut into a corner of a building that almost fell on top of a still searching Lucy, startling her.

"Holy hell! If those things are sharp enough to cut into brick, how the heck did that cane survive?!" Even Juvia was rather shocked that his weapon had been able to block her attack, and she had been about to call it off when she had seen him try to foolishly block an attack that could pierce steel with a _wooden_ weapon, but had gotten the shock of her life when it had held against her onslaught. "Sāberu Dansu." Unseen by any of them, the forgotten participant of this fight had gathered the courage to stage a sneak attack, and started it by whipping up a sand stream around Natsu, both blocking his vision and peltering him with large amounts of hard grains.

"Hmph." Natsu was about to turn the heat up to transform the sand to glass, but he was nailed in the gut by a flying kick, courtesy of the remaining Phantom member. Grunting, Natsu took the brunt of it and was sent sliding back several feet, but he had taken far worse before, and had dished out better, as he was about to show this man while he grabbed his leg so he couldn't get away. "Karyū no Tekken!" His hand gripping his cane lit up in flames as he sent it on a collision course with the mans chin, sending him flying back into a nearby building, but instead of plowing into it like Natsu was hoping he would, he sunk into it like it was liquid.

"Non! Tres mal! This garçon is too wily! We must retreat and inform Jose-Sama, Juvia-Sama!" "Like hell! Karyū no Hōkō!" Intaking some air, he released it in a stream of fire from his mouth that encompassed the entire alleyway, but by the time the onslaught ended, both of the Phantom Lord members were gone. "Damn, got away." The pink haired young man huffed through his nose, shooting embers from it as he got out of his fighting stance. "N-Natsu, when did you get _strong_?!" He glanced back at his blonde friend curiously. "What do you mean? I have always been this tough." "NO YOU HAVEN'T!"

Ignoring the comical face the busty teen was making, Natsu sniffed the air and motioned for her to follow him. "At any rate, come on. I smell the others returning from their excursion so let's go meet up with them at the Guild." As he made his way to the guild hall, Lucy was beside herself with confusion.

"... Since when did Natsu know what the word _excursion_ meant?" He suddenly turned to look at her with his eyes blazing in anger. "OI! I CAN HEAR YOU, DAMN IT!"

* * *

"I can't believe they beat the Master…" Morale was at an all time low inside of the Guild at the moment as everyone licked their wounds and planned out new strategies to hit Phantom where it would hurt. Erza had gone into the basement to wash off and ponder what they would do next, Gray and Elfman were cursing their own uselessness, and Lucy with a napping Happy on her lap was worriedly watching their resident Dragon Slayer as he sat stone still in a meditative stance at one of the tables in the Guild, eyes closed and cane in the middle of his lap.

"Guys, I am getting really concerned, here. Natsu's acting way off for some reason." "I'll say." Gray grumbled as he sent a withering glare in his direction. "Bastard didn't even have the balls to show up at Phantom's place! We might have actually been able to _do_ something if he had been there!" As much as he didn't want to admit it, Natsu _was_ one of their strongest members, easily one of the best contenders for S-class mage besides himself, and things might have gone a lot more preferable in their favor had he shown up.

"Please calm down, Gray." The bar maiden herself, Mirajane, came up to the group as they sulked and tried to cool off any animosity between its members. "If Natsu hadn't stayed back here, Lucy would have been captured by them." "... Yeah." Didn't mean he had to like it. "Why _did_ they come after you anyway, Lucy?" The disgruntled girl had a theory, but without any further proof, she had no idea of actually knowing. "I'm not sure. Maybe they wanted a hostage?"

"They would have taken Makarov or one of the weaker retreating Guild members if they had wanted a captive." Shockingly, it was _Natsu_ who had spoken up as he finally opened his eyes to view the rest of the Guild.

Seeing them all again, real or not, was more than he could take at the time he had returned here, so he had immediately found a seat and went into Jinzen, not only wishing to escape from the real world, but to also visit his life long partner to see if it had any more answers than he himself did, but he was both shocked and concerned to find that he could not contact his blade, or even enter his inner world, and after fruitless minutes of attempting to do so, had finally given up.

"... You sure this is flame brian, Lucy?" Everyone stared skeptically at the now sweatdropping pink haired mage. "I'm not THAT bad, okay?!" All action in the Guild stopped as everyone, as one, turned towards the reincarnated Shinigami and shot him a look that told him that yes, he _was_ that bad. "Well you can all just sod off, now, can't you?"

Before anyone had the time to respond, the ground started to shake. "What the- an earthquake, _now_?!" Everyone sprinted out of the Guild, including a wet Erza who was clad in only a towel, and they were all horrified to see a giant walking Guild building strutting towards them. "Is that Phantom?! "Holy shit!" "How do we beat _that_?" Various members of Fairy Tail all yelled at each other, or just to some deity in panic as they all bared witness to the cannon in the front of the architecture power up for a shot.

"EVERYBODY, GET DOWN!" Erza ran to the front of the guild, requiping into her Adamantine Armor as she did, preparing herself to take the blast head on. While many were screaming in terror or shouting in concern for the scarlet knight they all thought had gone crazy, Natsu looked down at his left hand for a few seconds before lifting his gaze to the fired beam of magic that was spiraling its way towards his requip using friend. "Millón Escudo." Holding his hand out while no one was looking at him, he scraped the very bottom of his near empty reserves of Reiryoku to form an invisible hexagonal shield of energy in front of the young girl.

Due to the size and the bright light that accompanied the beam of energy when it struck the barrier, no one but the person it was summoned to protect was able to catch a glimpse of it expanding to match the volume of the blast before a bright explosion of power and light blinded everyone from directly looking at the spectacle.

The owner of said shield, however, was gritting his teeth as he struggled to keep the spell up long enough for the Jupiter Cannon to lose power(He barely had enough Reiryoku to form the thing, and keeping it active this long against such a force was straining on his body.), a visible sheen of sweat appearing on his face from the exertion of the task.

Luckily for him, by the time the shield shattered from the attack, it had died down enough to be no stronger than a Karyū no Hōkō from his original self, which Erza was easily able to block with nary any effort at all.

"Wooooooooah!" Meanwhile, his Guildmates were in awe at what they perceived as Erza completely stopping the attack in its tracks with not so much as a scratch. "Maybe Erza IS the strongest mage here next to the master and Gildarts!" "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?! She stopped that beam with no effort at all!" "Go Nee-Chan, go!" Various shouts were made in the aftermath of the firing of the Jupiter cannon, with the main subject being the confused scarlet mage who had stepped to the plate to prevent their Guild form crumbling any further.

Natsu breathed a sigh of relief that he was able to prevent Erza from experiencing a painful fate by way of blasting. His sigh was cut short, however, when he involuntarily tensed up(It would seem that even after millennia that Erza still had the ability to make even someone as battle hardened as him feel ill at ease.) when the red haired teen sent a curious look his way, and when their eyes locked he knew that she knew that he had a hand in what had just transpired.

Before she could call him out on it, though, the current Wizard Saint, Jose, spoke up from within his Guild… Robot… Thing. " **I don't know how you were able to stop our Jupiter Cannon the first time, but we will all find out if you can do it again in the next fifteen minutes if you do not hand over Lucy Heartfilia over to us!** "

Using the confusion that everyone was feeling over this new found bit of information(Whether they had found out when he rescued her in his first run through or like they did now, their responses wouldn't change in the slightest, this former Shinigami knew, so he didn't need to stick around to find out what happened next.), Natsu went over to a still sleeping Happy and shook him awake(How he stayed passed out through all of that, he would just have to chalk up to him being Happy.). "Wah… Natsu?" "Happy, lets go. We need to go up to that walking building over there, and fast, before they try to destroy our Guild again."

Now he had the little mammals attention, and after a quick explanation, Natsu was being carried towards their base by a flying cat so that they could put a stop to their rampage while the rest of his Guild was being filled in on information he had already known long before they were being told.

"The cannon itself is probably not going to break easily- we'd have a better time destroying it from the inside." "Aye!" The little animal he had hatched from an egg so long ago nodded his head and dropped them off in the cannon itself so they could crawl into the base and break it there. Reaching their destination, Natsu saw the large Lacrima that was used to power the Jupiter Cannon. "So destroy this thing and it stops the cannon, huh? Seems simple enough."

"Except for the fact that I won't let you." Glancing down below the pedestal that held the massive orb, he saw the one man from the Elemental 4 that stopped him the first time around, as well(What was his name again? Totoro?) attempting to block his access to the Lacrima. "You, _do_ realize that you can't do much when you're down there and I am up here, right?" It seems he did, as a bead of sweat rolled down his head and he attempted to retort, but all he was able to do was stand there with his mouth open.

"... Give me a minute to get up there!" Natsu, as the young kids say, 'Wasn't about that life', so as the man was scrambling to get to higher ground, he unleashed a torrent of flames from his elbow. "Karyū no Enchū." Utilizing the boost the fire gave his limb, he shot forward at a speed that made it impossible for the fire controlling Phantom member to even try to redirect his own attack against him and landed his fist directly into the Lacrima.

Although nothing happened. "HA! Here I was, worried that you might have actually scratched it, when you couldn't even scuff the ex-" And then, all at once, a large crack split down the middle of the sphere. "-Terior?!" The two sides of the cracked object soon fell to either side of the room as it broke in half, officially signalling the end of Phantom being able to use the Jupiter Cannon.

"You… You… You…!" The pink haired teen popped up in front of the quivering man within a second. "Me." And with that, he shoved a fist into his gut, sending him sprawling to the ground while coughing up blood, beaten and unconscious. Not wanting to wait around for Gray and Elfman(Along with Erza most likely, now that she wasn't in dire straights from having to tank a Jupiter Cannon shot.) to roll around, Natsu quickly made his way out of the room and through the narrow halls of the building.

"NATSUUUUUUU! WAIT UP ALREADYYYYYYY!"

* * *

Fun fact: Jose didn't wait the full fifteen minutes this time to transform his Guild into a full on mech.

Other fun fact: There was a reason Yamamoto never allowed the Seireitei to install things such as cars, boats, or(Soul King forbid.) _trains_.

So after having spilled his stomach's contents onto some poor sap he had been beating the tar out of for directions(He actually kind of felt bad for that.), he was now climbing his way onto whatever could be considered a roof to this building(A shoulder, he supposed? He wasn't a scientist or a home designer, for craps sake.) in search of either Jose or one of the other Elemental 4 so he could stop the Abyss Break before it even started.

"This would have gone a lot smoother if I had been able to manipulate the magic in the air to form steps for me to climb…" Natsu grumbled to himself as he finally reached his destination, Happy not far behind due to using his wings to follow the hasty young man. "Hey, wait a minute- why didn't you use your wings to carry me up?!" As he was ripping into the small animal, he stopped when he felt a drop of liquid fall onto his head. "Hm?" Glancing up at what used to be a perfectly sunny day, it seemed storm clouds had gathered overhead in no time at all to pour a torrent of rain on both Fairy Tail members.

"Waaaaah! Natsuuuuuu, my fur is getting wet, and worse yet, the fish I have on me is also getting rain on it!" The Dragon Slayer wasn't sure whether he should be the one to break it to the small exceed that fish were almost always inherently wet, but in the end he just sighed and sent a pulse of magic through his cane before he handed it to the cat. "Here. I channeled some of my heat into it, so as long as you hold it the rain should evaporate on contact with you." Handing it over to him, as soon as his paw made contact with the wooden construct, the rain pelting him stopped clinging to him and instead turned to steam on impact, and the water already on him disappeared as well, making him the dryest thing within a 100 meter radius. "Now take that and get out of here so that you don't accidentally get caught in the crossfire of my attacks." "Aye!"

Watching him fly off to a safer distance, he turned around as soon as he heard the distinct sound of boots clanging against the floor, seeing Juvia manifest herself from the water the rain was creating. "Drip, drip, drop." When she made it to a distance that she was able to see Natsu as well, she suddenly went red in the face and turned her head away from his eyes. "A-Ah, it is the fire mage from before." Seeming to steel herself, she met his gaze with a new resolve. "Please, hand over Lucy Heartfilia, and I will request to our Master that we withdraw from here at once." Natsu just crossed his arms and huffed through his nose, sending a burst of fire flying from the nostrils.

"Sorry, water lady, not happening. I'll kill myself before I hand over Lucy for that disgusting creep you call a Master to get his greasy hands on her." Suddenly, to his confusion, she dropped her umbrella and a shocked look passed over her face. "... Did I just hear something break?" The pink haired young man scratched the back of his head as he looked around to see if he was just imagining things or not.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!" Alarmed, Natsu snapped his eyes back to the screeching blue teen to see that she was in a rage filled state as her body started to transition from human looking to a complete water made one. "Wait, Gray told me about this once." Natsu had a revelation. "She becomes so enraged that her body superheats the water it creates, and it screwed over his Aisu Meiku enough that he couldn't get a single spell off. But to my fire…" He grinned confidently as he lit his arm on fire.

"JUVIA CANNOT FORGIVE THIS! JUVIA SHALL NEVER FORGIVE LUCY!" He sweatdropped, though, when she went on a rant about how much she hated Lucy. "Why is she mad at _Lucy_?" Shaking his head at the strangeness of it all, he shot forward and threw a punch at her stomach. "Karyū no Tekken!" "Wōtā Kāne!" She retaliated with a spell of her own, and when Natsu shot his fist into it, he expected it to evaporate from being heated even more than it already was, but was shocked when it managed to _douse_ his flame and continued into his chest, making him lose his breath as well as be sent back from the force of it.

"The hell?!" He clenched his fist that had been doused in water, and attempted to set it ablaze once more, and while it did, it shook for several seconds from being freezing cold before he had managed to get rid of the cold water clinging to it and set it on fire again. "I thought it would be superheated, not super _cold_?!" He didn't get to say much more before he had to duck and avoid another whip like extension of the girl that was shot his way in an attempt to chop his head off. "Oh come on!" Clenching his left hand harder, he summoned more flames and when the next attack came his way, he pushed into it, struggling for a second before he eventually destroyed the tendril of below freezing water, with his hand coming out a lot less flaming than it was before.

"Tch!" Dodging another attack, he started to run across the floor to avoid more attacks and think of what to do next. "I could, theoretically, keep this up all day, but Abyss Break would activate by then, and even if it didn't, I need to finish this before the others get here and try to take on Jose. Not to mention that it takes an absurd amount of fire to not be completely doused in that water, so long range isn't even an option. I guess brute force it is."

Kneeling to duck under another tendril of water, he bum rushed her once more, this time with a plan of action. "GRAAAAAAH! JUVIA'S JEALOUSY FREEZING HER ALREADY FRIGID HEART!" With her body completely liquidized, she rushed at him as well, followed by a large wave of water that soon encompassed his form, threatening to kill him via shock to his system from the dramatic change in temperature of his regular body heat. He, however, just smirked when his plan turned out better than he expected. "Karyū no Yuwakashi."

Eyes widening as she remembered what that particular spell could do to water, she tried to escape it's range, but wasn't near fast enough to accomplish that plan of action before Natsu's eyes flashed and he heated up his body heat beyond what should have been safe, even when he was basically dead, to the point that any water that touched him, near frozen or otherwise, evaporated in an instant, leaving the almost hundreds of gallons of water that had been used to attack him to turn into nearly a quarter of that in less than five seconds.

It wasn't long after that, either, before he summoned a large ball of fire over his head that he compressed into around a volley ball sized shape, that he then expanded not long after to utterly annihilate any water within hundreds of feet of his body.

Juvia, who had only made it a little over a hundred, had closed her eyes in resignation over the fact that the heat wave was about to wash over her as well, and being a water woman, would no doubt erase her from existence as well. After a few seconds of anxious anticipation, however, and she still had yet to be removed from this plane of the world, she opened her eyes up, expecting to see the attack inches away from killing her.

She was shocked(And immensely delighted, she decided.) when she saw the back of the pink haired young man she had fallen for as he effortlessly waved off his own attack in this direction with the sole intent on making sure it didn't kill her, with the rain that constantly followed her being held at bay as the heat he was producing evaporated it before it could even get five feet of his body.

"J-Juvia is confused… Why didn't you finish her off?" Natsu just looked over his shoulder at her, his own confusion showing on his face. "Why would I do that?" "B-Because you and Juvia are sworn enemies…" He just tilted his head while turning around. "I wouldn't really go that far to describe our relationship…" "R-Relationship?!" "But in the end, you are a Phantom and I'm a Fairy. But in the end, all that really means is that you deserved some punishment for being so naive as to join them in the first place, so-"

Normally, this was the part where he beat the ever living crap out of the 'Youngster' to show them the error of their way, but, now that he was in this world once more, and knowing that the name 'Genryusai' was all but nonexistent, he decided that it was time that the 'Natsu' part of him take over once more in his life. So, taking a page from his Guild Master for this one, he bonked her on the head with his fist. "Bad." He retracted his fist from her head. "There. Now you've learned your lesson. Don't do it again."

For her part, the blunette couldn't stop the rising blush that covered her face even if she wanted it to at this, this, _perfection_ of a man's kindness towards someone like _her_. "Y-You're sparing Juvia…?" "Sure." He shrugged while giving her a grin that made her face the reddest it had ever been in her life. "Live and let live, I suppose the saying goes." He started to become concerned, however, when steam exploded from her ears similar to his whenever he got pissed off.

"Er, did I say something-" "Truly you are too kind to Juvia!" Gallons of tears fell from her eyes in a comical fashion while the rain increased in power enough that it was able to get through his field of heat and touch his red-hot skin, evaporating at the touch their instead. "What the- did the rian just get heavier?" While he looked up into the sky, he missed the young lady before him freeze up at the mention of it and look at him with a sense of dread.

' _H-He is going to be just like the others, isn't he…?_ '

While those and similar thoughts pervaded her head, the boy in front of her lowered his head finally and sighed, making steam erupt from it as the water washed over his form, cooling his super-charged body down. "Aaaaaaahh. It's always a pain in the ass to simmer down whenever I get fired up- this is a refreshing change for once." Juvia didn't know how many more shocks she could take to her system before she keeled over at this point. "You- You don't find Juvia's rain to be annoying?"

"You kidding me? I usually have to get Gray to cool me down once I get going so that I don't burn or melt the Guild by mistake." He laughed jovially as his skin finally cooled enough that the rain could cling to it once more. "This is a much better replacement, if you ask me!"

As he turned to bask in the weather once more, he missed the water mage behind him going googly eyed as she swooned over him. "Hm?" Hearing a noise with his enhanced sense, however, broke him from his reverie. Listening closely, he heard the distinct sounds of fighting coming from the lower floors, and that made him click his tongue in annoyance. "Damn. Gray and Elfman must be here by now; I need to find Jose and Gajeel already." With that thought in mind, he rushed over to the same window he had entered form while hollering for Happy to hurry up and follow him.

As the two made their way to the window, they missed a certain clue haired teen stare at the sky in surprise as the clouds parted for the first time around her, and the sun reflected light directly towards where the retreating form of the Dragon Slayer was, giving her an image that would forever be ingrained into her mind.

"Beautiful…"

* * *

As Natsu with a floating cat trailing behind him walked through a narrow hall that Natsu knew would lead to the chamber they held Lucy in the first time around, Natsu had an epiphany. "Wait a moment, I didn't do anything to stop THIS kidnapping from taking place!"

And just as he whispered that to himself, the voice of the Phantom Lord Guild Master sounded throughout the building.

" **All you Fairy Tail brats out there, we have succeeded in capturing Lucy Heartfilia. Our first objective has been completed.** " If that wasn't bad enough, a pained shout echoed throughout the corridors after he was done speaking. "Lucy!" He grit his teeth as laughter sounded through the speakers. " **Now the only objective left- is to annihilate all you miserable runts!** " You could just feel the sickening grin the man had on his face as he said all of this.

Having enough of this despicable man talk, Natsu collected air in his lungs once more and puffed out his cheeks. "Karyū-" He started as the door at the end of the hall opened up. "-no Hōkō!" He finished as he unleashed a torrent of flames towards the door, causing an explosion as it hit something and making fire start to spread across the hall's walls as it did.

Scowling as he knew that the attack hadn't done its intended job, he marched forward to enter the room. "Happy." His best friend looked at him. "Go find the others to check if they are fine and tell them that I'm okay, and that I'm going to finish this war." The cat, however, had other plans as he started freaking out and flew in his path. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! You can't fight one of the Wizard Saints, that's just suicide!" He leveled a glare that froze the blue furred animal in his place. "We have no other options- our Guild Master is incapacitated, the only S-ranked wizard we have on deck is Erza, and if she gets caught by surprise like Makarov did, then we might as well be up shit creek without a paddle."

As much as the cat didn't want to think like that, he knew that was the truth. "But Natsu, you can wait for the others to get here, and we can take him on toge-" "Not a chance. I'm not letting anyone else take on this psycho, plus, who knows what he'll do with Lucy by the time we can all gather up? I don't know what, but I don't like it, so I'll fight him to make sure whatever it is doesn't come to fruition." The small caped mammal had an internal struggle for a few seconds before he let loose an anguished cry and flew away as fast as he could to find the rest of the Guild in the building.

"WHEN I GET BACK, YOU BETTER BE ALIVE, YOU GOT IT NATSU?!" He just closed his eyes and let out a humph. "Don't you worry, Happy. I've been told I'm too stubborn to die from something as insignificant as this."

Letting the moment pass in silence, he opened his eyes once more, this time in a glare as he marched through the flames like they didn't even exist and entered the room where they were holding Lucy captive. "JOSE!" He looked around the place, only seeing the cannon fodder standing around and Lucy staring at him with hope and relief. "I KNOW YOU'RE IN HERE!" Still ignoring his roars for him to show himself, Natsu became impatient.

"Fine!" Spitting out his words, he gripped his cane hard enough to crack his knuckles. "I'll start with your henchmen, then." Hearing that, they all started to cackle and provoke him, thinking they were safe as they had numbers on their side. They stopped doing that immediately after Natsu suddenly appeared in front of one of the goons and shoved his fist into his gut. "Ikkotsu." Even holding back, the force of the blow was enough to make the man cough up blood as he was pushed through the wall of the room, sending him flying through the air and even slamming into a few of the Shades flying around outside as he continued on his painful journey across the sky.

Suffice to say, when Natsu turned around to face the rest of the peons, they were all quivering in fear as Natsu stared deadly at them. "You're all in need of some _discipline_." Vanishing to their eyes once more, he reappeared behind another fool and struck him in the back of the head with his disguised sword, knocking him out and slamming his face into the floor. Leaning to the side to avoid a punch from another, he swung his cane into his side, leaving him breathless as he was then kicked through the hole the previous Phantom mage made.

Throwing his cane into the air where it spun to nearly touch the rafters, Natsu reached forward and grabbed an unwilling mage by the head before he used his newly freed hand to grab the last visible person in the room besides Lucy and slammed their heads together, no doubt leaving them with concussions as they passed out.

Feeling someone up above him taking his bait, Natsu vanished in a blur of speed once more and grabbed his cane as a surprised Gajeel attempted to do the same from his spot kneeling on one of the metal beams just below the ceiling. Pointing his weapon at his fellow Dragon Slayer, who was cursing up a storm as he realized he had fallen for a ploy, Natsu made his next move. "Onibi."

Somehow, the iron eating male was able to kick off the beam just before the attack tore him a new one, but as it was it still ripped through the ceiling, leaving a completely circular hole the size of his whole body to decorate the room. Landing in a crouch, Natsu ignored the glare sent his way to instead look back up to the top of the room, more specifically where he knew Jose was hiding in the shadows. "If you don't show yourself, I'll just take that as my cue to burn you alive."

Low chuckling was his answer, before it evolved into full blown laughter as the man of the hour lowered down onto the ground next to an irate Gajeel. "And here I thought the only person worth wasting energy on was that Titania girl, when this Salamander suddenly pops up from under a rock and peaks my interest!" Natsu just glared silently as the man ranted. "Very well! Until I can get my hands on the Requip brat, I'll sully my hands with your blood instead! Dākuparusu!" he waved his hand in front of him, sending his magic across the room in an line that soon exploded with Natsu in the brunt of it.

"Natsu!" The blonde haired girl struggled to escape from her binds, but she didn't have the physical strength required to do so. "Ha! So much for-" "Karyū no Saiga!" The pink haired Dragon Slayer interrupted his sentence by appearing in front of him in an instance, nearly slamming his attack head on, but only managing to clip the Wizard Saint's side when he dodged to the side. "Tch! Annoying brat!" The dastardly man snarled and sent a wave of his Shades to attack the fire using mage, but they were all rather easily destroyed by him emitting flames from his entire body, scorching them to ashes.

"Let's go!" Roaring, Natsu ran forward and slammed his cane down onto the weirdly dressed man, but he was able to bring up his forearm at the last second to block the blow, but his arm still rattled form the force of the strike and he was sent to his knees as a large crater formed beneath him. "What? Where is this strength coming from?!" Noting caring to give an answer, Natsu would have plowed his fist into his head had he not been struck by a long iron pole in his side. Grunting, Natsu moved his arm to grip the appendage tightly, and he flung the owner of it into a nearby wall, kicking up dust everywhere.

The momentary distraction allowed the other man to gain his bearings, though, and he quickly gathered magic in his free arm to shoot a strong beam of energy into the young man that sent him flying into a wall as well.

"Enough fooling around!" Snarling, the Phantom Lord Guild Master powered up, making the aura surrounding him far more potent and giving him the eerie feeling of death and decay. "You die _now_! Deddo Wēvu!" If that wasn't enough, the other Dragon Slayer had recovered as well, and he was not very pleased. "STOP PISSING ME OFF AND IGNORING ME! Tetsuryū no Hōkō!"

Seeing the two powerful and supercharged attacks honing in on him, Natsu was rather put out that he didn't have the reserves to release Ryūjin Jakka at the moment, because Taimatsu would have been pretty handy right about now. But because that wasn't an option, he would have to go with the next best thing. "Metsuryū Ōgi: Guren Bakuenjin!" Lighting his arms in the largest amount of flames that was acceptable in current circumstances, he started pinwheeling them around, sending the fire soaring into the air, creating a sort of whirlpool design. Soon there was a large torrent of blaze floating above him, and just as the two attacks of his foes were about to slam into him, he sent his own flying in a wave of heat and fire that covered the expanse of the room.

The two forces met each other, with both struggling to over power the other, and as the fire looked like it was about to lose, it suddenly condensed in a ball form no bigger than the size of someones head, and ripped straight through the beam like blasts and continued forward until it passed the two stunned Phantom Lord members and shot through the wall behind them, not so much breaking it as it did melt through the material and soared through the sky and across the land, not looking like it was going to stop its flight any time soon.

"Okay…" Natsu panted out. "That took more out of me then I was anticipating…" The formation of technique itself hadn't been too draining on the reserves, but when he saw that it might not have pulled through in the end, he had compressed the power of it into a smaller area so that instead of being everywhere at once, it would be in a tiny circumference that would easily tear through anything in its way.

That was easier said than done, however, as it had taken more than half his remaining reserves to accomplish, and in the end, had _missed_.

It had a nice stun factor to it, at least, as the two he was fighting against(As well as Lucy, when he took a glance at her behind him to see how she was.) were still in shock at how their best attacks had been beaten so easily.

"NATSU!" Wincing at the sound of someone he had hoped wouldn't arrive, or at least not until he was finished, he glanced over to the entrance of the room(The door was just completely burnt to dust- whether from his first attack in the hall or from that last spectacle, he didn't know.) to see that Erza, back in her Heart Kreuz Armor, was leading the pack of Happy, Gray, Elfman, and Mira into the room to no doubt take on Jose.

Something he didn't want happening, as between Gajeel, the Wizard Saint, and the still trapped Lucy(He really should have fixed that by now, looking back at it…), he didn't like his odds of beating them if he had to watch their backs as well during the fighting.

That wasn't to say he didn't believe in them, it was just that Gray and Elfman got their asses handed to them in one move if he remembered correctly, and while Erza wasn't on deaths door anymore, he didn't think she was ready to handle this yet.

And if Jose or Gajeel aimed for one of them once they were out for the count…

"WHAT THE _HELL_ DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?! TAKING ON JOSE AS WELL AS ANOTHER S-CLASS MAGE IS BEYOND STUPID!" Seeing the scarlet mage seethe in rage just made his next decision for him. "Sorry, Erza." He whispered to himself as the cane in his hand started to dissipate, with wood becoming metal as his true weapon revealed itself to the world.

"A sword?" None were more surprised than Erza at the reveal of his Zanpakutō. She didn't think he knew how to _hold_ a sword, let alone wield a katana. But from her examination, she was shocked to see that he held himself like someone who knew how to use a weapon, and not like some novice, but as if he were a _master_ of the art. Gripping the purple handle tightly, he withdrew the blade from its scabbard to show the silver sword in all of its glory, and, putting the sheathe on his waste, he took the handle in both hands and got into a stance.

Breathing in deeply, as this would take an immense concentration that he couldn't afford to screw up, he closed his eyes and started to call upon his magic into the blade, slowly heating it up to the point that it turned slightly red.

"The hell? Since when did the idiot get a sword? Does he even know how to use the damn thing or is he just gonna go in, guns blazing and hoping he can get a lucky hit in?" Gray, for his part, was just confused as to what his rival was doing as he went over and started to free Lucy from her prison. "Maybe Natsu grabbed it from some Phantom Lord member that he beat up on his way?" "No." Happy shook his head, shooting down Mirajane's idea. "I was with him the entire time, and he didn't take anything off anyone. In fact, the only thing he even had on him was that cane he mysteriously got from somewhere between the time we found Levy, Jet, and Droy and when you guys went over to Phantom Lords other hideout."

"The same cane that just became that sword?" Erza questioned as she never took her eyes off the young mage that was charging up magic for something. "Uh, yeah, now that I think about it. He's carried that thing religiously, like it was always with him or something. Never thought it'd be a sword, though. Didn't expect Natsu to know any illusion based magic." "Bah, he probably hollowed out a stick and stuck the damn thing inside and he just burned the wood when he wanted to get the sword out." Gray waved it off like it was a coincidence, which almost everyone believed, because, really, this was _Natsu_ they were talking about, but Erza wasn't as convinced.

' _That sword…_ '

"THAT DOES IT!" Sadly, it seemed that with the arrival of the other Fairy Tail members, the last standing enemies that were Phantom Lord got kicked from their stupor and started to power up again to kill the Fairies once and for all. While Jose took his time in collecting darkness to shroud around him, Gajeel transformed his skin into scales of iron, boosting his already formidable defense and offense to newer heights. And while Natsu was still in the midst of charging up his next move, they had finished with theirs and had blurred to attack the pink haired Dragon Slayer while he was occupied, and his teammates were too in their own world to react in time to stop them.

"NATSU, GET OUT OF THERE!" A shout of warning was all he got as both Jose and Gajeel slammed their fists into either cheek of his face, with the force of their combined blows blasting a hole in the wall directly behind Natsu. Everyone feared the worst when this happened, however, no one was expecting the fire user to just continue to stand with his hands on his now searing blade while he slowly opened his eyes to stare into his two foes startled eyes.

' _Hope you can forgive me for bastardizing this, old friend…_ ' With that last thought, Natsu tipped the edge of his sword to the floor, where the ground slowly lit on fire from the sheer intensity of his Zanpakutō's temperature, where it then slowly spread across the floor in a distinct circular pattern that took up a majority of the ground around them all. When the formation finished itself, Natsu suddenly jabbed his weapon into the floor and quickly grabbed onto both of the arms that connected to the fists on his face. "Ennetsu Jigoku, ya assholes."

As soon as he uttered the words, the dim flames lighting up the floor jumped to life as a massive pillar of fire engulfed the three of them and easily blocked out the two screams and shouts of pain with its immense crackling of fire and the distortion of air near it that made any sound coming from the blaze near impossible to hear unless you were literally inside of the thing in the first place.

Despite all of this, it was a true testament to his Zanpakutō's ability and strength over fire that even with his remaining magic reserves and masterful control he was only able to form one pillar instead of the regular seven, and even then, it was barely half as powerful as what it should be, and not even a quarter of the size or temperature that it normally was(Which made him make a note to himself to NEVER attempt to recreate any of his Bankai abilities, _ever_.).

But with that said, the attack he used was not to be underestimated in the slightest, as even with the downgrade, the technique was still enough to cause immense pain to the two he trapped inside of it, and even with his own resistance to fire, he was starting to feel the effects of it himself. Slowly but surely, the dark aura surrounding the Phantom Lord master disappeared as the blaze ate through it and attacked its owner, and the scales covering Gajeel either burnt to a crisp or melted off as he was slowly spit roasted in an open fire.

Natsu was also feeling the effects, as his coat went up in a blaze, leaving him topless as his scarf flailed wildly around the inferno and his pants were not far away from joining his coat; his skin started to darken as burns developed across his entire body and he had to grit his teeth to avoid releasing pained cries of his own.

Luckily, however, his resistance paid dividends as the two enemies he trapped inside his attack gave out far before he was going to, and he was able to release the technique before any of them kicked the bucket.

Panting as the blazing inferno died down to fleeting embers, he let both of the men in front of him that were littered with high degree burns and were suffering from severe dehydration fall to the floor, unconscious, he turned to the others who were staring at him, slack jawed and wide eyed, to give them a thumbs up. "I did it."

And then promptly fell forward and passed out from a mixture of pain and magic exhaustion.


End file.
